Of all the hobbies you can have, making movies—or just recording great video—is one of the most difficult and expensive, but that's all the more reason to invest in a little DIY. Here are some of the best projects you can do yourself and put together your very own video rig.

Note: These projects were mainly created for video use, but many of them can work for still photographers, too!

Set Up a Studio

While you can take your production rig with you, there will be some things that are better shot in a contained environment. For that reason, you might want to build out a bit of a home studio. One staple of the home video studio is the green screen, and you can easily build your own on the cheap. I did this several years ago and it was very simple. The key is good lighting, however, and lights can be expensive. While you're not going to avoid spending any money, there are DIY budget lighting kits you can put together to save a bit. Great lights are generally worth the investment, but if you don't have the cash you can certainly make do with less. Even your tablet can make a decent softbox light when needed.

Upgrade Your HDSLR

One of the great revolutions in videography came about thanks to the DSLR. Most DSLR cameras can now record very high quality, HD video that rivals what you'd get with even a professional camera. They're not without their downsides, of course. Most HDSLRs are missing plenty of features you'd expect from a dedicated video camera because they're not dedicated video cameras. That problem has been solved for a select few, however, thanks to a bit of custom firmware called Magic Lantern. It'll provide many of the missing software features you'd want from a video-capable device. For instructions on how it works, what you can do with it, and how to set it up, check out our guide.

Get Good Sound

Good sound is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to video work. Most people will watch a crappy picture if they can understand the audio, but the moment the audio goes out of sync or is incomprehensible you've got something unwatchable. While there aren't a ton of DIY sound projects, there are cheap recorders you can upgrade. We like the Zoom series, and here's a great four-input upgrade for the Zoom H2.